England
Triumphant in their first Centenary Shield Fixture!

Scotland
1 England 5

Kingsford
Adjei was the star of the show, netting four times as England made a dream
start to the defence of their Centenary Shield crown at Greenock Morton on
Friday night.

Facing
a long trek north the England lads showed no signs of fatigue as they were fast
out of the blocks and Adjei opened the scoring on 3 minutes, firing home from
10 yards out after Jack Butler had seen his shot blocked after a corner from
Dan Barlow.

Scotland
were rocked and for the opening 10 minutes England were rampant and were
looking likely to extend their lead with the hosts struggling to contain Barlow
in particular.

England
had calls for a penalty waved away on 11 minutes when Adjei appeared to be
fouled as he took aim from just inside
the box but the referee waved away the appeals and Scotland breathed a sigh of
relief.

The
home side were edging their way back into the game but were not causing the
solid England defence too many issues and Aidan Stone was quiet in between the
sticks for the visitors but was called upon to make a smart save low down to
his left to keep England ahead.

Shortly
before half-time, Adjei added his second after some great interplay on the
right saw him prod home from inside the 6 yard box from Jean-Luc Ramdin
pinpoint cross.

With
the visitors 2-0 ahead at the break it was crucial they did not take their foot
off the gas and, despite Scotland having the best of the play after the
re-start, Max Watters made a surging run down the right and his low cross
allowed Connor Short to fire England 3-0 ahead and it was surely game over with
less than hour gone.

If
that goal did not seal it then the 4th goal ten minutes later certainly did.

Another
surging forward run saw Max Watters cross for an unmarked Adjei to ghost in at
the far post and fire into the net past a stranded Scotland keeper to complete
his hat-trick and, just two minutes later, he scored his fourth when Henry
Watson lifted a ball back across goal from a corner and Adjei was on hand to
finish neatly at the far post.

Just
a few minutes later Max Watters was felled in the box and England had the
chance to go 6 up but Ross Connelly in the Scotland goal tipped the penalty
onto the post and was alert to Connor Short’s rebound so the score remained at
5-0.

With
Scotland deflated, the visitors simply had to see out the remaining 20 minutes
but Scotland grabbed a consolation goal just as the game entered stoppage time
but not even that could take the gloss off a tremendous England performance
from back to front.

Next
up for England is a visit from Northern Ireland at Torquay United on Friday
24th March 2017, visit www.esfa.co.uk for details on tickets for
this not to be missed home fixture!

Match report submitted by 353 Photo - All photos from the match can be found on their website here!